Share this:

Protesters crowd the dining room at McDonald's calling for a higher minimum wage in Oakland, Calif. on Wednesday, April 15, 2015. (Kristopher Skinner/Bay Area News Group)

Former US Labor Secretary and UC Berkeley professor Robert Reich, center, joins other protesters in the dining room at McDonald's calling for a higher minimum wage in Oakland, Calif. on Wednesday, April 15, 2015. (Kristopher Skinner/Bay Area News Group)

Former US Labor Secretary and UC Berkeley professor Robert Reich greets Sandra Roman as she walks off her job as a shift manager at McDonald's and joins protesters calling for a higher minimum wage in Oakland, Calif. on Wednesday, April 15, 2015. (Kristopher Skinner/Bay Area News Group)

Protesters crowd the dining room at McDonald's calling for a higher minimum wage in Oakland, Calif. on Wednesday, April 15, 2015. (Kristopher Skinner/Bay Area News Group)

Protesters gather in the parking lot at McDonald's as they demonstrate for a higher minimum wage in Oakland, Calif. on Wednesday, April 15, 2015. (Kristopher Skinner/Bay Area News Group)

Protesters line the service counter at McDonald's calling for a higher minimum wage in Oakland, Calif. on Wednesday, April 15, 2015. (Kristopher Skinner/Bay Area News Group)

Protesters line the service counter at McDonald's calling for a higher minimum wage in Oakland, Calif. on Wednesday, April 15, 2015. (Kristopher Skinner/Bay Area News Group)

Former US Labor Secretary and UC Berkeley professor Robert Reich speaks to a crowd of protesters in McDonald's as they call for a higher minimum wage in Oakland, Calif. on Wednesday, April 15, 2015. (Kristopher Skinner/Bay Area News Group)

SAN JOSE — Standing in front of a McDonald’s in East San Jose, South Bay labor supporters rallied with fast-food workers Wednesday as part of a national push for a $15 hourly wage.

Fast-food workers around the country were joined by adjunct professors, home care, child care, airport, industrial laundry and Walmart workers in the Fight for $15 protests across the country. Organizers called the effort the “most widespread mobilization ever by U.S. workers seeking higher pay.”

About 150 fast-food South Bay workers and supporters gathered at around 9 a.m. at the McDonald’s on Story Road at Capitol Expressway in San Jose. The group marched through the parking lot chanting, “What do we want? $15. When do we want it? Now” before setting up in front of one of the restaurant’s entrances.

Among them were Ben Field, executive officer of the South Bay Labor Council; the Rev. Jethroe Moore, president of the San Jose/Silicon Valley NAACP; and San Jose Councilman Ash Kalra.

“Income and equality is an issue that is affecting Silicon Valley more than most places in the country,” said Kalra, adding that fast-food workers are no longer teens “trying to make an extra buck.”

The federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. In California, minimum wage is $9.00 an hour; in San Jose the rate is $10.30.

Moore called for business owners to give workers “a living wage, a decent wage” by starting with a national minimum wage of $15 an hour.

“We are not just asking for it, we are demanding it,” Moore shouted in front of the workers. “We are going to make it an issue for the 2016 president election.”

Miriam Andrade, 31, of Sunnyvale, was one of the workers to take part in the rally. Andrade, a mother of three, has worked at an Arby’s restaurant in Sunnyvale as a shift leader and earns $11 an hour, making it difficult to survive in Silicon Valley.

She attended the rally for “better wages and a better life.”

At one point Wednesday about a dozen workers went inside McDonald’s and began encouraging the workers to join them by chanting, “Come on out. We got your back.”

The group erupted with cheers as a handful of workers left the counter and briefly joined the rally outside.

The campaign was spearheaded by the Service Employees International Union and began in late 2012. On Wednesday, organizers say protests for higher pay and union for low-wage workers were planned for more than 230 cities and college campuses.

Similar protests occurred Wednesday at a McDonald’s in San Francisco, in Oakland and reportedly a couple of other locations in San Jose. A Bay Area-wide rally was scheduled for Wednesday afternoon in Berkeley. Many of the San Jose fast-food workers who attended the protest at McDonald’s were planning to attend.

Kendall Fells, organizing director for Fight for $15, said McDonald’s remains a focus of the protests and that the company’s recently announced pay bump shows fast-food workers already have a de facto union.

“It shows the workers are winning,” he said.

McDonald’s earlier this month said it would raise its starting salary to $1 above the local minimum wage and give workers the ability to accrue paid time off. It marked the first national pay policy by McDonald’s and indicates the company wants to take control of its image as an employer. But the move only applies to workers at company-owned stores, which account for about 10 percent of more than 14,300 locations.

That means McDonald’s is digging in its heels over a central issue for labor organizers: whether it has the power to set wages at franchised restaurants.

McDonald’s, Burger King and Wendy’s say they don’t control the employment decisions at franchised restaurants. The SEIU is working to change that and hold McDonald’s responsible for labor conditions at franchised restaurants in multiple ways, including lawsuits.

In an emailed statement, McDonald’s said it respects the right to “peacefully protest” and that its restaurants will remain open Wednesday. In the past, it said only about 10 to 15 McDonald’s workers out of about 800,000 have participated.

Already, organizers say the Fight for $15 is changing the way people think about low-wage work.

Last year, more than a dozen states and multiple cities raised their minimum wages, according to the National Employment Law Project. Walmart, which also has been targeted with protests for higher wages and better treatment for workers, also recently announced pay hikes.

Robert Reich, former labor secretary and a professor of public policy at the UC Berkeley, said stagnating wages for lower-income workers also are helping change negative attitudes about unions.

“People are beginning to wonder if they’d be better off with bargaining power,” Reich said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. Contact Mark Gomez at 408-920-5869. Follow him at Twitter.com/markmgomez.

Mark Gomez has worked for the Mercury News since 1992, including the past ten years as a reporter on the breaking news/public safety team. He is a South Bay native and graduate of San Jose State University.